This invention relates to an animal pen and more particularly to a farrowing apparatus wherein suckling pigs and their mother sow are confined so as to eliminate or substantially reduce the chance of piglets being crushed under the sow when the latter lies down.
The protection of young suckling pigs from injury due to movement of their sow is a well-known problem, and numerous attempts have been made to provide housing or farrowing structures which afford such protection. Several patents which generally deal with this problem include: U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,602,419 to Johnson; 2,688,308 to Hines; 3,084,668 to McMurray et al; 3,276,429 to Johnson; and 3,884,188 to Arends. One approach of such prior art structures is to always maintain the piglets in a separate compartment from the sow, such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,884,188 and 3,276,429. Another solution such as indicated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,602,419 and 3,084,668 is to provide special means for permitting the piglets to enter the sow's pen only in certain areas thereof where they will be protected from being crushed. The citation of the above patents and their discussion where believed appropriate constitutes applicant's prior art statement.
Despite the above, there still remains the problem of preventing piglets from being crushed, while simultaneously permitting enough access of the piglets to the sow so they can properly nurse.
It is therefore a primary object of this invention to provide an improved farrowing apparatus in which proper access of the piglets to the sow is permitted when she is in a lying down nursing position and which simultaneously prevents such access when the sow is in a standing position.
A further object of the invention is the provision of a farrowing apparatus which may be easily and simply incorporated into existing farrowing structures.
A still further object of the present invention is the provision of an improved farrowing apparatus which while granting access to the piglets to the sow's chamber to nurse, will forcibly eject the piglets from that chamber when the sow moves from a lying to a standing position.
These and other objects of the invention are accomplished by provision of adjacent sow and piglet chambers separated by an opening which opening is normally closed by a spring biased gate. The gate in turn is contacted by a lever projecting at one end thereof into the sow's chamber and in contact with her under portions so that she is in a lying down or nursing position the lever will force the gate to pivot downwardly to a lower open position so that the piglets may move from their compartment onto the lowered gate whereupon the piglets have access to the sow for nursing. When the sow subsequently moves to a standing position, the lever automatically raises and permits the gate to be urged, by its spring bias, to a closed position, which action simultaneously forces or ejects the piglets back into their own compartment.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention shall become apparent as the description thereof proceeds when considered in connection with the accompanying illustrative drawings.